Jeremy Peter Goulet, 35, was found guilty of peering into a Northwest Portland condo in 2007 to watch a 22-year-old woman shower and carrying a gun without a concealed weapons permit.

Multnomah County prosecutors said Goulet lived about 200 yards from the woman and got into several scuffles with her boyfriend, who spotted him outside her condo. He admitted in court that he liked to videotape unsuspecting women on his cell phone.

His convictions for invasion of privacy and unlawful possession of a firearm brought a sentence of three years on probation in May 2008. But his probation was revoked months later and he was ordered to serve two years in jail.

Goulet, a former military police officer and Marine veteran, also had a peeping conviction from 2000 in California, according to prosecutors.

Recently Goulet moved to Santa Cruz, Calif. Two city officers arrived at his home Tuesday afternoon to follow up on an allegation that he made inappropriate sexual advances toward a co-worker at her home, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said Wednesday.

Officials said it was the first time police were killed in the line of duty in Santa Cruz, a city of about 60,000 located about 70 miles south of San Francisco.

View full sizePolice secure the scene near N. Branciforte Avenue and Doyle Street in Santa Cruz, Calif., where two Santa Cruz Police Detectives were shot and killed Tuesday. The officers were killed while investigating a sexual assault complaint, and the suspect, 35-year-old Jeremy Goulet was also fatally shot, authorities said. Thomas Mendoza/The Associated Press

After killing the officers, Goulet took their handguns and drove around the neighborhood in Baker's vehicle, Wowak said. Police and deputies who were searching the area spotted him, gave chase and the shootout ensued.

Santa Cruz paramedics and firefighters as well as residents were on the street when gunfire erupted, the sheriff said. Goulet shot a fire truck, but no other officers or bystanders were injured.

Goulet was found carrying three firearms and wearing body armor. Wowak said authorities have not confirmed the source of the weaponry. The incident remains under investigation.

Goulet had been arrested for misdemeanor public intoxication in his last week, the sheriff said. People who knew Goulet described him to investigators as "destructive in nature" and distraught over recent events in his life, but Wowak would not elaborate.

"There's no doubt in anyone's mind that the officers that engaged Goulet stopped an imminent threat to the community and neutralized that problem before it reached out and harmed the people that we're sworn to protect," Wowak said during a Wednesday news conference.

Public records show Goulet grew up in California, then lived in Alabama, Colorado and Oregon before returning to California. A post on his Facebook page last November noted his move to Santa Cruz.

Danny Thomas, 31, the boyfriend of the woman Goulet spied on, said Portland police contacted him Tuesday about Goulet's involvement in the Santa Cruz shootings.

Thomas said he felt a mix of sadness for the slain officers' families and relief for himself and his girlfriend. The couple, now living in Vancouver, feared that Goulet might have sought them out for revenge.

"It was always something in the back of my mind," Thomas said. "We were just searching his name on the Internet two weeks ago to see if he was anywhere near us."

View full sizeA bullet riddled garage door and wall shows where suspected murderer Jeremy Goulet was shot in Santa Cruz, Calif. on Tuesday afternoon. Authorities said he allegedly killed two Santa Cruz Police Department detectives outside his home while they were investigating a sexual assault complaint filed against him.Thomas Mendoza/The Associated Press

Thomas said he had spotted Goulet outside the couple's Portland condo three times in 2007. He got into a scuffle with Goulet the second time and told him not to come back. But Goulet reappeared weeks later with a handgun.

Thomas said he confronted Goulet, the two fought and he restrained Goulet until police arrived. He said Goulet fired the gun during the scuffle, but no one was hit.

"My condolences to his family for their loss, but I thought he was 100 percent crazy," Thomas said. "I can't say I'm surprised about what happened to him."

Goulet went on trial in May 2008. A Multnomah County jury acquitted him of attempted murder and burglary, but convicted him on misdemeanor invasion of privacy and unlawful possession of a firearm. He did not have to register as a sex offender.

Circuit Judge Eric J. Bloch sentenced him to three years on probation with a list of conditions. They included no possession of firearms, completion of sex offender treatment, submission to polygraph tests, searches of his computer and other electronic equipment, a curfew and travel limits set by probation officers.

Goulet moved in with his twin brother sometime after the trial, but within five months it became clear that he was not fulfilling his probation terms, Bloch said. Probation officers reported that he did not want to submit to polygraph tests, computer and phone searches, or any other conditions.

During an evaluation for sex offender treatment in October 2008, Goulet was reported as trying to intimidate the interviewer and being argumentative, the judge said. He also was hostile and resistant.

A few weeks after the evaluation, Goulet left a message with his probation officers that he would not attend a meeting. They went to his home, but he refused to answer questions and yelled that he "would not be interrogated," Bloch said.

The probation officers arrested him because they felt his behavior was so erratic and uncompliant.

A week later, Goulet was back in Bloch's courtroom. The judge gave him a choice to follow his probation terms or go to jail. Goulet chose jail, and Bloch said he imposed one year in Multnomah County Jail for each of the two charges he was convicted of.

"I felt it was my duty to impose the maximum penalty within my power because I was very concerned that he was a risk to the community," Bloch said. "He thought his behavior was normal, and I was very clear to him that I thought his behavior was not normal and not appropriate."

Greg Moawad, a former Multnomah County deputy district attorney, who prosecuted Goulet, said it is rare for someone to elect jail time over probation terms.

"Generally people who refuse to continue with treatment fall into two categories: someone who will never change because they don't see their behavior as a problem or someone who doesn't change because they are so wedded to the lifestyle and find enjoyment from it," Moawad said. "I can't say which category he fell into, but he was clearly someone who did not want to change."

Bloch said he denied motions to reduce the jail sentence, believing Goulet should be held as long as possible. He estimated denying sentence reductions fewer than five times in his decade as a judge.

"The same issues we were trying to help him with while he was in our system came to a head elsewhere," Bloch said. "They went untreated, escalated, ended in his death, the death of two police officers and added possible trauma to the person who filed the complaint against him. It's tragic all the way around."